Festival layout/map 2022

[Wanderlei]

Coming from the north I always set my satnav to Frome and go into Glasto from that angle. Seems to avoid the stressful routes.

[Junglist1981]

31 minutes ago, clarkete said:

30 years ago I used to drive out from Wells and there was a great route where you could leave Wells, turn left before Coxley go through some lanes (often with the odd broken down bus or person walking home the other way), somewhere near The Crossways and you'd eventually emerge in Pilton at a crossroads (which I think had a shop on the left).  You could either go left into a traffic queue, right and join the short queue for the car parks down the hill or (if you were really lucky) drive straight across and park in the village car park.

I believe many aspects of that are blocked off these days to stop other chancers from doing the same thing 🙂 

I always enjoy it on the Monday when we come out of the car park onto a random little lane and follow it for what feels like 10 miles before finally popping out again somewhere back into reality. There are some top lanes around there lol

Edited April 28, 2022 by Junglist1981
so so tired

[al_coholic]

23 minutes ago, Wanderlei said:

Coming from the north I always set my satnav to Frome and go into Glasto from that angle. Seems to avoid the stressful routes.

When I used to head to the East side from the North I would go to Frome as well, but then instead of following the A361 and joining the queue through Cannards Grave, I would head south at Nunney Catch and take the back roads through Batcombe and Evercreech. Brings you out just North of Pylle Lane. No traffic at all. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by al_coholic
typo

[Johnnyseven]

4 hours ago, SGS said:

no such thing as a stupid question - the new campsite is the other side of the road so not an option. Also the festival is made up of more than 1 farm and these arrangements have taken years to agree and it would take time 1 with the farmers to change the boundaries and 2 with the council to change the agreement for what constitutes the festival site - it is really tricky and cleverer people than I are working on it I hope

Moving the fence so that a field previously outside the fence is now inside the fence doesn't necessarily shorten the distance stewards have to walk to get to their shift. The field would still be the same distance away. Unless having it inside the fence means they don't have to take a lengthy route to get to the field.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Johnnyseven

[Havors]

4 hours ago, incident said:

I might as well post what I've heard on this because I don't think it's much of a secret at this point.

I believe that at least some of the people who previously camped on-site (specifically, SE Corner stewards) are being moved to the field that most recently has been car park Purple 1. Not sure if that applies to all on-site stewards or whether there's more than one new field.

For what its worth...  I know some stewards that will be working the Glade and they said they used to camp by orange staff car park or something, but they have been told it may be moving this year. 

[Havors]

4 hours ago, SGS said:

they have already said that shuttle land train will be limited in size and frequency - there are over 1000 stewards on site so this is why it is more of an issue for anyone working on west side of festival 

By all accounts there is well over 2000 oxfam stewards... thats just oxfam. 

If staff didnt have to go miles around the houses to get to and from the campsite it would be a lot easier... Some good planning could but some access routes for staff only shortening the journey surely? 

[Havors]

3 minutes ago, SGS said:

I was working on the assumption that if the fence could be moved then the orange parking could move further wet and the steward camping would remain where it was and there would be additional camping for punters where the staff orange parking is now. The stewards are hoping for a solution that doesn't put them as far away as possible from their place of work.

To be fair Oxfam stewards have been doing much worse for much longer... Like walking from Purple Exit to Ped Gate D for a shift.... 

Not that that makes it ok, just saying there is always someone worse off 😄 

[AshwaGandhi]

Really enjoying the insider knowledge here thanks @SGS 👏

[Havors]

1 minute ago, SGS said:

there are several cohorts of stewards. there are the volunteers that raise money for the local charities and schools. - about 1000. of which The Park has about 300 and Silver Hayes has about 275  and then the rest split between the other areas.

Oxfam have a cohort as you say about 2000 but they have always had separate camping organised. I am not sure but imagine that Greenpeace and Wateraid also have some and a similar set up. Some of the people who live  really local will just go home and come in every day, others like me will come in on Saturday and stay and the balance will all be onsite by early evening Tuesday. 

It does appear they may be trying to move all or at least most of the staff camping up into the North East corner offsite, to make room for extra public camping? 

If they had staff shuttle buses it wouldnt be a problem. 

[Director_of_Mischief]

Couldn't they split the festival into halves (or even quarters) so stewards camped on the East side, do the stewarding jobs based mainly on the East Side of the festival, same again for the west side. Then no-one is having to walk the entire length of the festival...?

[clarkete]

53 minutes ago, Junglist1981 said:

I always enjoy it on the Monday when we come out of the car park onto a random little lane and follow it for what feels like 10 miles before finally popping out again somewhere back into reality. There are some top lanes around there lol

To be honest since I live further away and am not familiar with which are open or closed these days I tend to just go with the flow which can be fine, but can be a pain leaving and ending up in a really slow queue to the M5 - far preferable to be in those lanes 🙂 

This year I'm on the coach, which I've done a few times and there's something nice about letting them take care of the journey.

[Havors]

9 minutes ago, SGS said:

Agreed I'm not sure how the oxfam side of it works as never helped them out. I imagine the place you work could be really flexible and therefore anywhere on site. The local charity people will always be at John Peel, Or Silver Hayes or whatever site they are recruited for. I would love it to be split into 3 or 4 volunteer sites NSEW - that way you have a better chance of meeting another volunteer - better community atmosphere ! but that may be a bit utopian haha

So does it look like they are trying to move your stewards up towards the NE by purple? And only accessibility by dairy ground? 

If they had direct routes for staff across the festival it wouldnt be that much of a problem. As it stands you have to walk about 3 miles to a shift thats 1 mile away as the crow flies. 

[watsonjm]

There was some staff camping in a field just outside Marys gate in 2019 (next to Tangerine fields)  There were a few fields there that could be used for stewards that side of the fest.

[dondo]

43 minutes ago, SGS said:

there are several cohorts of stewards. there are the volunteers that raise money for the local charities and schools. - about 1000. of which The Park has about 300 and Silver Hayes has about 275  and then the rest split between the other areas.

Oxfam have a cohort as you say about 2000 but they have always had separate camping organised. I am not sure but imagine that Greenpeace and Wateraid also have some and a similar set up. Some of the people who live  really local will just go home and come in every day, others like me will come in on Saturday and stay and the balance will all be onsite by early evening Tuesday. 

WaterAid shared Tom's Field with recycling crew in 2019

[waltere]

One staff camping area for people whose work locations are across the whole site is always going to be somewhat of a lottery isn't it. I've been doing it with Shelter since 2014 and our staff camping is just outside gate C, which is a trek if you get put on the Stonebridge, but really easy for the Cockmill or West Holts bar.

 

I guess where it is a bit different is for groups who know they'll be working in a certain location/area, and being put a long way away from that would definitely suck

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, Havors said:

If they had staff shuttle buses it wouldnt be a problem.

The challenge is the sheer number of stewards turning over I guess. Oxfam alone would be about 800 gross (400 coming on, 400 off). You could restrict it to the furthest shifts only to reduce that number. 

Even doing that it would take multiple trips as I doubt you'd get a big double decker on the trackway round the fence. So depending how long a round trip took you'd need multiple buses. 

Not impossible to sort but a traffic addition they could do without.  Maybe one that's necessary if they want to open steward campsites to the public?

[tarw]

2 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

The challenge is the sheer number of stewards turning over I guess. Oxfam alone would be about 800 gross (400 coming on, 400 off). You could restrict it to the furthest shifts only to reduce that number. 

Even doing that it would take multiple trips as I doubt you'd get a big double decker on the trackway round the fence. So depending how long a round trip took you'd need multiple buses. 

Not impossible to sort but a traffic addition they could do without.  Maybe one that's necessary if they want to open steward campsites to the public?

I personally think that there is a difference between locals doing stewarding to raise money for a charity and Oxfam volunteers who are there primarily for a ticket ( I knew it’s not all of them). 
Oxfam have always been in Oxfield and so there is no change and do not need shuttles. 
 

The local group volunteers are often doing it just to raise money for their charity and have had that made far less appealing so should have a shuttle. 
 

I write this as an outsider who doesn’t volunteer for either and still has a good camping spot. 

[Leyrulion]

2 minutes ago, tarw said:

I personally think that there is a difference between locals doing stewarding to raise money for a charity and Oxfam volunteers who are there primarily for a ticket ( I knew it’s not all of them). 
Oxfam have always been in Oxfield and so there is no change and do not need shuttles. 
 

The local group volunteers are often doing it just to raise money for their charity and have had that made far less appealing so should have a shuttle. 
 

I write this as an outsider who doesn’t volunteer for either and still has a good camping spot. 

There's still 1,000 of them apparently so you've got the same logistics issues in terms of providing transport. 

I'm not sure if local volunteers do overnight shifts (or even what their actual volunteering role is?)if they don't then there's possibly an even harder logistics challenge than what I described for Oxfam as there's less shifts. 

[giantkatestacks]

Not always as they were in Tom's Field before they moved to the Oxfield but yes @tarw

[incident]

2 minutes ago, tarw said:

I personally think that there is a difference between locals doing stewarding to raise money for a charity and Oxfam volunteers who are there primarily for a ticket ( I knew it’s not all of them). 
Oxfam have always been in Oxfield and so there is no change and do not need shuttles. 
 

The local group volunteers are often doing it just to raise money for their charity and have had that made far less appealing so should have a shuttle. 
 

I write this as an outsider who doesn’t volunteer for either and still has a good camping spot. 

Problem is that while Oxfam/Festaff are all at or pretty damn close to the gates and so can be (relatively) easily reached by road*, the local community groups are onsite, and so traffic movement becomes a hundred times more complicated. The group handling the Avalon field for example, it may be the case that the closest a shuttle can easily get is Gate C.

* except the ones at WV

[incident]

2 minutes ago, giantkatestacks said:

Not always as they were in Tom's Field before they moved to the Oxfield but yes @tarw

And said Oxfam field is in I believe it's 3rd distinct location outside the fence, being pushed further away each time.

[Leyrulion]

1 minute ago, incident said:

Problem is that while Oxfam/Festaff are all at or pretty damn close to the gates and so can be (relatively) easily reached by road*, the local community groups are onsite, and so traffic movement becomes a hundred times more complicated. The group handling the Avalon field for example, it may be the case that the closest a shuttle can easily get is Gate C.

* except the ones at WV

Oh yeah, I'd assumed travel within the site was impossible unless you were the poo truck or an ambulance.

[incident]

1 minute ago, Leyrulion said:

Oh yeah, I'd assumed travel within the site was impossible unless you were the poo truck or an ambulance.

Not impossible, but there's a series of rules that vary based various factors including type of vehicle, route and time. For example in some cases even when a vehicle is permitted, it needs to travel at walking speed and have a Marshall walking in front as an escort.

[Leyrulion]

5 minutes ago, incident said:

Not impossible, but there's a series of rules that vary based various factors including type of vehicle, route and time. For example in some cases even when a vehicle is permitted, it needs to travel at walking speed and have a Marshall walking in front as an escort.

Which would render any shuttle a bit pointless. 

I guess they could do something which had 1 drop off point in the interstage compound. That might be more possible and appease.

[funkychick2007]

38 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

There's still 1,000 of them apparently so you've got the same logistics issues in terms of providing transport. 

I'm not sure if local volunteers do overnight shifts (or even what their actual volunteering role is?)if they don't then there's possibly an even harder logistics challenge than what I described for Oxfam as there's less shifts. 

Locals do overnight 12 hour shifts!!